Adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast

You can adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor to improve the readability of text and to make digital pictures appear more like they'll look when printed.

To improve the results when adjusting the brightness and contrast settings for your display, use Display Color Calibration. (Display Color Calibration helps you adjust these color settings and others.) For more information about calibrating your display color in Windows, see Calibrate your display.

The way you adjust brightness and contrast varies and depends on your specific display.

Brightness and contrast buttons on the front of the monitor. Some monitors have brightness and contrast controls on the front and use the standard symbols shown in the following image.

Brightness and contrast symbols

On-screen menu. You can change the brightness and contrast settings for some displays by using an on-screen menu, and then setting the brightness and contrast in the resulting menu. Many times, you can view the on-screen menu by pressing a button—possibly labeled Menu—on the front of the monitor.

Laptop display. Laptop displays don't have brightness or contrast buttons on the front. For a majority of laptops, there isn't a control for setting the contrast. However, you can set the brightness of many laptops by pressing and holding the Fn key, and then pressing a function key to decrease brightness () or increase brightness (). When using Display Color Calibration on a laptop, set the display to the maximum brightness setting.

For more information about setting the brightness and contrast for your display, check the information that came with it or go to the manufacturer's website.

Adaptive brightness is a feature in Windows that uses a light sensor to automatically adjust the display brightness to match the lighting conditions in your computer's surroundings. To use adaptive brightness, you must have light sensors installed and enabled on your computer.

To determine if your laptop or computer monitor supports adaptive brightness, look for the Enable adaptive brightness setting in Power Options (mentioned in the following procedure) or check the information that came with your computer.

To turn adaptive brightness on or off

Open Power Options by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, and then clicking Power Options.

Under any plan, click Change plan settings.

Click Change advanced power settings.

In the list, expand Display, and then expand Enable adaptive brightness.

To turn adaptive brightness on or off when your computer is running on battery power, click On battery, and then, in the list, click On or Off.

To turn adaptive brightness on or off when your computer is plugged into an outlet, click Plugged in, and then, in the list, click On or Off.

You'll get the best results when adjusting your monitor by using a calibration program. There are a number of programs available to help you optimize your monitor's display. They usually work in conjunction with a device that temporarily attaches to the front of your monitor to read light and color levels and automatically make changes to your monitor's display.

You can make adjustments to your display to improve its brightness or contrast by using the controls that are usually found on the front of the monitor, but keep in mind that these adjustments will be less refined than if you use a calibration program.

Most monitors use standard symbols to represent brightness and contrast, but since the location and operation of brightness and contrast controls varies from monitor to monitor, you might need to experiment or check the information that came with your monitor.